Australian Tax Office
ATO website Home page
Hiser has worked extensively with the Australian Taxation Office since 1999 to develop and evolve its web site’s basic framework. We have been involved in two major redesigns of the main public ATO site, as well as numerous projects to expand its scope, refine its structure, and improve its usability and accessibility.
Our user-centred design methodology (The Hiser Element™) was central to all these projects. Alongside our project-focused engagements, we also have been closely involved in the ATO’s development of its own user-centred design capabilities through toolkit licensing, education, and support for initiatives such as the ATO's Simulation Centre usability lab.
Web site redesign
The ATO's goals for its most recent web site redesign were to:
- Maximise tax awareness, understanding and compliance
- Increase service quality and efficiency, for ordinary taxpayers and tax professionals alike
- Make information easier to find and use, at the right level of detail
- Support brand repositioning to build credibility and trust, and develop more personalised relationships.
The old design had outgrown its structure, with thousands more pages included than the menus were designed to cope with.
The redesign's scope ran from the Home page, through ‘market segment’ pages, down to detailed ‘core’ content and manuals.
Finding your way through the tax maze
A key goal was to help the ATO manage the huge amount of information on its site, and to allow users to find their way to the most important content quickly. It was a major information architecture challenge to cover the enormous depth and breadth of subject matter, while surfacing key content and tasks effectively.
Our approach: fast, flexible, scaleable
The redesign followed Hiser’s user-centred design process, ensuring that each stage was validated with representative users against project goals. To meet the project's schedule, two teams worked in parallel during the analysis and early design stages.
Hiser conducted initial usability testing during user needs analysis, followed by design walkthroughs with paper mock-ups and, finally, formal usability testing of electronic prototypes. We also worked with visually-impaired users to ensure compliance with accessibility requirements.
We created an interim visual design, while working with the ATO's consultants to apply a new overall ATO branding to the website. After launch, Hiser’s involvement continued with a site evaluation strategy and post-implementation reviews.
Result
- The redesigned site reduced the number of clicks users had to make to reach detailed content from 12 to an average of 4.
- Key content for critical tasks are easy to reach.
- Users can easily work out which content is the most important for them to read, helping them to sift through a huge amount of information and pick out what they need more easily.
- Main landing pages are grouped into subtopics, helping users to understand the structure of the information below it more easily.
- The flyout menu design exposes more of the content, allowing users to find their way more quickly.
- Pages specifically designed for novices allow nervous users to filter out everything except what they need for their immediate task.
The new site has been very well received, with the level of acceptance from users much higher than previously, and internal content managers finding it easier to place content.
